Wordsmith AI in $25m transformation of legal roles – Daily Business

A Scottish company developing artificial intelligence in the legal profession has secured £18.5 million ($25m) in series A funding.

Wordsmith AI wil use the investment, led by Index Ventures, to help legal professionals speed up the decision-making process and develop entirely new functions.

Ross McNairn, CEO and co-founder of Wordsmith, says: “For the first time, AI infrastructure can be embedded across companies, with fleets of agents that you can train to support every corporate function – cutting deal cycles, answering queries, and processing complex workflows.

“Our Legal Enablement Platform is like air traffic control for GCs [general counsels] and in-house teams, helping them guide teams to the right decisions faster.”

With a customer base that includes Trustpilot, Remote.com, Deliveroo, Multiverse, Docplanner, and hundreds of other in-house teams, Wordsmith is recording strong revenue growth across the UK and US, with the company set to open offices in both London and New York later this year. 

Explaining the strong customer traction, Ross McNairn adds: “We are helping GCs embed their legal intelligence across the business. Gone are the days of legal being seen as a blocker, it is now a revenue accelerator.”

Wordsmith’s technology is not only transforming how legal teams operate, but also helping to shape a new generation of legal professionals.

As AI agents become embedded across corporate functions, the company is seeing the emergence of a new role within legal departments: the legal engineer. Traditionally handled by legal operations managers, this evolving function focuses on training, deploying, and supporting AI agents, requiring an entirely new skill set.

Mr McNairn set up Wordsmith AI in 2024, having previously helped to scale three tech unicorns, as chief product and technology officer at TravelPerk, VP of Product at letgo, and head of product at Skyscanner. 

Hannah Seal, partner at Index Ventures, said: “AI is revolutionising the legal profession, and Wordsmith is leading that charge.

“They’re not just building a co-pilot, they’re creating the foundational infrastructure for how entire organisations interact with legal. This is about reshaping enterprise operations, not just supporting legal teams. We’re excited to back Ross and the Wordsmith team as they define a new category at the intersection of law, technology and AI.”  

Wordsmith has also raised funding from Scottish Enterprise, with Mr McNairn highlighting the importance of creating world-class AI jobs in Scotland: “While we are the fastest-ever Scottish startup to reach a valuation of over $100 million, what’s more important is that we’re scaling a technology company from a base in Scotland that will in itself help to build an AI ecosystem here.” 

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: “Private investment is an essential building block of a strong and growing economy – and fundamental to ensuring businesses can grow and succeed.

“Scottish companies bucked the UK trend last year by attracting more than £700 million of investment – up by a fifth on 2023 – and it is fantastic news that Wordsmith AI, a Techscaler member, has secured its $25 million Series A funding round in such a short space of time.

“There can, must and will be many more success stories like this. From the Techscaler programme and our wider pipeline of support for entrepreneurs, to continuing to position Scotland as an investment destination, the Scottish Government will continue to help our start-up companies grow and prosper.”